What is Rakeback?
What is Rakeback and What Is It Worth to a Poker Player?
If you are a poker player who plays online with any regularity, think about for a moment, how much money you have invested at online poker rooms for this month. Add in the cash you won and then re-invested in online poker. What is the amount for this year? This value is most likely equal to hundreds or even thousands of dollars. For every dollar on every poker hand you have played online, the poker room has collected a rake. Many online poker rooms offer a percentage of this rake back to players via other sites that affiliate with the online poker room. You should be careful though, that you are well-informed when it comes to a rakeback deal and choose the one that is right for you.
Reputable rakeback deals serve as a comp to regular players and will return anywhere from 15% to 35% of your rake back to you. Anything outside this range is probably a scam. Consider the amount of rake the poker room takes (this can usually be found within the poker room’s info on the home website). Then consider the amount of rakeback being offered. Finding a middle-ground between these two factors will result in the most lucrative rakeback deal for you.
There are two types of rake: contributed and dealt. Contributed rake means that if a player doesn’t contribute to the pot (if he folds), he does not contribute to the rake. On the other hand, dealt rake is collected from all players who are dealt cards, regardless of whether a player acts or folds. What this means to you is, if you are a tight poker player, you are going to pay less into a contributed rake table, but if you are a loose player, you will be paying to the rake a lot more. Tight players will end up paying more in rake when the table is a dealt rake game. Furthermore, low-limit and mid-limit staked games are more profitable for rakeback players, simply because a $5 rake cap goes further in a $50-dollar pot than at a $500-dollar pot.
The right rakeback deal can be very profitable for some online poker players, but you have to do the homework to find the most profitable one for you. Do some personal study on your playing style, game preferences, and frequency of play, and then plug in your stats to a few different rakeback deals to find the best one. There are a lot of rakeback deals out there; therefore, if you don’t shop around, you will fall for the wrong one.